Richard Keys fumes at what happened ahead of Everton clash v Nottingham Forest
Richard Keys does not see the point of the Everton and Nottingham Forest players observing a pre-match silence on 5 March in the Premier League.
The two sides played out a 2-2 draw at the City Ground and before the game, the players paid tributes to the victims of a recent train crash in Greece.
Keys was left fuming as the only reason it was done was the fact that the Forest owner is from Greece.
He wrote on his blog on 13 March, “I do believe that the minutes applause or silence has become too commonplace.
“Did Forest and Everton really have to pause pre-match to remember the victims of the Greek train crash because the Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis is Greek? Should managers be wearing lapel badges promoting one cause or another every week? Surely it dilutes the impact for a time when something really matters?
“Please – can we get back to when football fans could just enjoy a day out watching their team? They don’t care who anchors what on TV.”
Spot on
It feels like some of these gestures are just for virtue signalling and nothing else as the Premier League wants to keep up its public relations.
They want to appear to care for certain causes while they allow Middle Eastern governments to invest large sums of money and buy their clubs.
It’s all really pointless and most fans can see right through it and that is not what they’re paying for.
They want to see football at its purest form and that’s something that is not possible with all these different stakeholders.
Everton fans will play their part and wouldn’t want to unnecessarily ruffle too many feathers but it’s good that Keys is bringing up this point.
Sean Dyche or any other managers in the league wouldn’t really want any of this and hopefully, we see less and less of this in the coming months.